President Donald Trump’s rush to deploy California National Guard troops to Los Angeles has left dozens of soldiers without adequate sleeping arrangements, forced to pack together in one or more federal buildings, resting on the floors of what appear to be basements or loading docks, the Chronicle has learned.
Have a look at that first photo. National Guard troops, sacked out on their gear, a box of MREs on the table.
That has nothing to do with any "rush." It's perfectly normal. It's not "news."
I can't count the number of times I slept on a floor, and was glad to have a roof over my head and some food in my stomach instead of sleeping on the ground with an empty stomach, including in situations like the first few days of guard duty at I Marine Expeditionary Force headquarter in Saudi Arabia, which had been up and running for several months when my unit arrived.
In that particular situation, we were "48 hours on, 24 hours off."
The 24 hours you had "off," there was a living area to go to in another location (trailers set up to hold migrant workers, who had been removed for our convenience). You could get a shower, sleep in something resembling a bed, walk down the street to an "e-club" with near-beer and food vendors, etc.
The 48 hours you had "on," you did four hours standing a post, then four hours on the reaction team, then four hours sleep / personal time, rinse, repeat.
On the reaction team, you slept on the floor in the officer of the guard's office area, with your gear on and your weapon next to you, in case there was an incident requiring immediate manpower/firepower (my only combat engagement of the war occurred when that happened).
During your actual sleep time, at first there were some dirt-floor equipment sheds to throw your vapor barrier mat and poncho liner down in and sack out. Later they converted a fairly large area -- it looked like a set of auto repair bays -- into a sleeping area and got some cots.
All that started on January 1, 1991. The Marine Corps had been there since August, 1990 and we were mobilized and on our way there for a month before arriving. And it was still a clusterfuck, especially at first.
In most situations where we had to go somewhere and be somewhere on anything less than several days' notice, it was like that at least for a day or two.
Here's why:
When a unit gets orders to go from Point A to Point B and do thing C, if there's plenty of time that unit starts making plans and sends an "advance party" to get some things ready. There's still plenty of room for screwing up. The requisition for a squad bay gets lost instead of accepted, the five-ton truck with the cots breaks down, nobody's told the mess hall is shut down for remodeling when they file their request to have a company fed so they don't think to bring several days' worth of rations for 130 troops, etc.
If there's not plenty of time, you pack your trash and get on the road and deal with the little details later.
Shit. Happens.
Whatever you think about those troops -- who they are, what they're doing, whether they should even be there -- unless they're newbies fresh out of boot camp who have never been anywhere except their drill center, they're used to the kind of adhocracy you see in those photos. It's standard operating procedure. They got told to grab their gear and go. They grabbed their gear and went. Everything else gets taken care of as possible.
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